Nearly 5 months after we installed the toilet upstairs, we now also have a sink! Many other things have recently been getting in the way of making bathroom progress. Having a toilet upstairs is great, and we were somewhat satisfied with it for a while, although we had to use antibacterial wipes afterward if we didn't want to go downstairs to wash our hands with water. On Saturday, we were able to run and cement the drain pipe, and on Sunday we ran the supply lines (PEX)

Over the past few weeks, we've taken massive leaps and bounds in getting our new upstairs bathroom ready for inspections. We ran a new 3 inch drain stack all the way up through the library/sm bedroom downstairs and under the floor of the new bathroom. We plumbed new supply pipes up to the toilet and shower stall. We installed our new toilet (on the subfloor, for the time being). No leaks, and it's being used already! We have installed ALL the lighting for the bathroom. The only electrical left is connecting the outlets to the breaker box, and installing the extractor fan. Enough talk, here are some photos!

Our washing machine is upstairs, and we got our new dryer! The men delivered the new dryer on Saturday the 13th! The delivery men also moved our washing machine from the basement all the way up to the second floor, and removed a very old, broken dryer we had down there. We didn't get the chance yet to run a gas line run upstairs, so we can't dry any laundry in the new machine, but the washing machine works well up there and isn't nearly as loud as we thought it would be. Until we get a reasonable quote to do the gas work, we'll continue drying our laundry on the drying racks downstairs. I'll try to get some photos up one of these days. Due to a recent illness and business with work and other things, I haven't gotten a chance to take or post any photos of the recent work.

Well, we had another productive weekend at the Neverending Two Story. Much of our wiring in the house was cloth-covered 100 year old knob & tube wiring. For various reasons I won't get into, it all needs to go. Last weekend, I shut off all the electrical upstairs and this weekend, I made some significant progress in removing the old knob & tube. Yesterday, I ran new wires to all the lighting upstairs. The light in the hallway was quite easy to do because we had previously upgraded all the wiring for that room and installed two 3-way switches. I simply had to remove the old cloth feed wire and replace it with the new 14 guage line from the basement. Next, I did the master bedroom light/ceiling fan. This was a little trickier, because in order to get the electrical to the fixture, I had to remove the 'floor' in the attic. After fiddling about with a jigsaw until the blade snapped off, I grabbed my circular saw. Setting the depth to just under the thickness of the flooring made quick work of it, and soon I had a 3 inch wide strip removed in a direct line to the fixture. From there, I used a 90-degree drill with a half-inch spade bit to bore through the 2x4 joists and run my new wire. For the second bedroom (Office), I used the same trick and made quick work of it. Once the wiring in the attic was done, I just had to take the ceiling fans down and rewire them on the new cables. This morning, I picked up where I left off yesterday and was able to switch on the lighting circuit with no trouble. Then, I wired in all new outlets in the master bedroom - I had previously run the wires for these and plastered up the channel in which they ran. I still have quite a bit of work to do with sanding and smoothing the plaster, but the outlets are all hooked up and ready to use! Finally, I cleaned up some of the hideous mess that had accrued in the hallway - tools everywhere, old wiring, new wiring, extension cords, wood bits, plaster bits, bags of cable staples, more tools, etc. I emptied out and moved a small set of drawers into the new bathroom area to hold the tools that seem to always end up on the floor... I'm going to go now and see what else I can do up there before the week starts. I still need to install the outlet for the washer/dryer and close up the floor. Then, we're ready for our new dryer next weekend!! Update... I kept on working and ended up also wiring up the 20 amp outlet for the washer/dryer. I also drilled a hole from the basement into the stud bay that we'll need to run electrical to the bathroom!! I wasn't entirely sure where the stud bay was from the basement, but I'm happy to say I hit it right in the center of the bay on the first try!! We have at least two more circuits for the bathroom, so gaining access to this chase is an important step toward inspection day!!